From the public prosecutor Nekhludoff went straight to the
detention-house. But no one by the name of Maslova was there. The
inspector told him that she might be found in the old temporary
prison. Nekhludoff went there and found that Katherine Moslova was one
of the inmates.
The distance between the detention-house and the old prison was great,
and Nekhludoff did not arrive there until toward evening. He was about
to open the door of the huge, gloomy building, when the guard stopped
him and rang the bell. The warden responded to the bell. Nekhludoff
showed the pass, but the warden told him that he could not be admitted
without authority from the inspector. While climbing the stairs to the
inspector's dwelling, Nekhludoff heard the sounds of an intricate
bravura played on the piano. And when the servant, with a handkerchief
tied around one eye, opened the door, a flood of music dazed his
senses. It was a tiresome rhapsody by Lizst, well played, but only to
a certain place. When that place was reached, the melody repeated
itself. Nekhludoff asked the servant if the inspector was in.
The servant said that he was not.
"Will he be in soon?"
The rhapsody again ceased, and with a noisy flourish again repeated
itself.
"I will go and inquire." And the servant went away.
The rhapsody again went on at full speed, when suddenly, reaching a
certain point, it came to a stand-still and a voice from within was
heard.
"Tell him that he is not home, and will not come to-day. He is
visiting--why do they bother us?" a woman's voice was heard to say,
and the rhapsody continued, then ceased, and the sound of a chair
moved back was heard. The angry pianist herself evidently wished to
reprimand the importunate visitor who came at such a late hour.
"Papa is not home," angrily said a pale, wretched looking girl with
puffed-up hair and blue spots under her eyes, who came to the door.
Seeing a young man in a good overcoat, she became calm. "Walk in,
please. What do you wish to see him for?"
"I would like to see a prisoner. I hold a pass from the prosecutor."
"Well, I don't know; papa is not in. Why, walk in, please," she again
called from the entrance hall. "Or apply to his assistant, who is now
in the office. You may talk to him. And what is your name?"
"Thank you," said Nekhludoff, without answering the question, and went
away.
Scarcely had the door closed when the same vigorous, merry sound, so
inappropriate to the place and so persistently rehearsed by the
wretched girl, was heard. In the court-yard Nekhludoff met a young
officer with a stiff, dyed mustache, of whom he inquired for the
assistant. He himself was the assistant. He took the pass, looked at
it, and said that he could not admit any one to the prison on a pass
for the detention-house. Besides, it was late.
"At ten o'clock to-morrow the prison is open to all visitors, and the
inspector will be here. You could then see her in the common
reception-room, or, if the inspector permits it, in the office."
So, without gaining an interview, Nekhludoff returned home. Agitated
by the expectation of seeing her, he walked along the streets,
thinking not of the court, but of his conversations with the
prosecutor and the inspectors. That he was seeking an interview with
her, and told the prosecutor of his intention, and visited two prisons
preparing for the ordeal, had so excited him that he could not calm
down. On returning home he immediately brought forth his unused diary,
read some parts and made the following entry: "For two years I have
kept no diary, and thought that I should never again return to this
childishness. But it was no childishness, but a discourse with myself,
with that true, divine _I_ which lives in every man. All this time
this _I_ was slumbering and I had no one to discourse with. It was
awakened by the extraordinary event of the 28th of April, in court,
where I sat as jurymen. I saw her, Katiousha, whom I had deceived, on
the prisoners' bench, in a prison coat. Through a strange
misunderstanding and my mistake, she was sentenced to penal servitude.
I have just returned from the prosecutor and the prison. I was not
permitted to see her, but I am determined to do anything to see her,
acknowledge my guilt and make reparation even by marrying her. Lord,
help me! My soul is rejoicing."